The use of disinfectant in barn cleaning alters microbial composition and increases carriage of Campylobacter jejuni in broiler chickens

Fan, Y., A. J. Forgie, T. Ju, C. Marcolla, T. Inglis, L. M. McMullen, B. P. Willing, and D. R. Korver. 2021. The use of disinfectant in barn cleaning alters microbial composition and increases carriage of Campylobacter jejuni in broiler chickens. bioRxiv:2021.2010.2029.466552. doi 10.1101/2021.10.29.466552

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To maintain food safety and flock health in broiler chicken production, biosecurity approaches to keep chicken barns free of pathogens are important. Canadian broiler chicken producers must deep clean their barns with chemical disinfectants at least once annually (full disinfection; FD) and may wash with water (water-wash; WW) throughout the year. However, many producers use FD after each flock, assuming a greater efficacy of more stringent cleaning protocols, although little information is known regarding how these two cleaning practices affect pathogen population and gut microbiota. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of barn cleaning method on the commercial broiler intestinal microbiota, occurrence of select pathogens and abundance as well as short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) profile in 30-day-old broiler ceca.

Approach

Two cleaning methods were evaluated for full disinfection (FD), chicken manure, used litter, and organic matter were completely removed from the chicken house after depopulation followed by a two-step disinfection. For water wash (WW), manure and used litter were removed, followed by low-pressure water rinse with the water temperature set at 35°C of the facility surfaces, air dried, and placement of fresh wood shavings. The current study was performed on 28 production flocks, and the FD and WW treatments were each applied on 14 production flocks. For each flock, 14,000 Ross 308 broiler chicks were placed at 1 day of age and confined to half of the house, then allowed access to the entire house at 7 days of age. All chickens were fed ad libitum and reared from 1 day of age through processing at about 32-35 days of age. At day 30, five birds from each flock were selected for sampling and cecal contents were collected for detection of cecal Campylobacter and Salmonella by enrichment and DNA extraction.

Analysis of Results

Chicken 32-day body weight and mortality were not affected by the cleaning methods. No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between the two barn cleaning treatments suggesting that the cleaning method had a minimal impact on the flock performance. FD resulted in increased Campylobacter occurrence in the 30-dayold chicken ceca. Therefore, the WW rearing environment reduced the occurrence of Campylobacter colonization in the 30-day-old chicken ceca. The barn cleaning method did not affect the total bacterial load in the chicken ceca.

Application

The results revealed that barn cleaning methods had little impact on the 30-day body weight and mortality rate of broiler chickens. In addition, the FD treatment had a subtle but significant effect on the broiler cecal microbiota with increased abundances of C. jejuni and decreased SCFA concentrations, which would support the adoption of WW as a standard practice. Thus, compared to FD, WW can be beneficial to broiler chicken production by inhibiting zoonotic pathogen colonization in the chicken gut with reduced cost and labor of cleaning. Further studies examining other barn disinfection practices and testing for other pathogens are warranted to identify the best practices to minimize pathogen load and maintain animal performance

Abstract

To maintain food safety and flock health in broiler chicken production, biosecurity approaches to keep chicken barns free of pathogens are important. Canadian broiler chicken producers must deep clean their barns with chemical disinfectants at least once annually (full disinfection; FD) and may wash with water (water-wash; WW) throughout the year. However, many producers use FD after each flock, assuming a greater efficacy of more stringent cleaning protocols, although little information is known regarding how these two cleaning practices affect pathogen population and gut microbiota. In the current study, a cross-over experiment over four production cycles was conducted in seven commercial chicken barns to compare WW and FD. We evaluated the effects of barn cleaning method on the commercial broiler performance, cecal microbiota composition, pathogen occurrence and abundance, as well as short-chain fatty acid concentrations in the month-old broiler gut. The 30-day body weight and mortality rate were not affected by the barn cleaning methods. The WW resulted in a modest but significant effect on the structure of broiler cecal microbiota (weighted-UniFrac; adonis p = 0.05, and unweighted-UniFrac; adonis p = 0.01), with notable reductions in Campylobacter jejuni occurrence and abundance. In addition, the WW group had increased cecal acetate, butyrate and total short-chain fatty acid concentrations, which were negatively correlated with C. jejuni abundance. Our results support the use of WW over FD to enhance the activity of the gut microbiota and potentially reduce zoonotic transmission of C. jejuni in broiler production without previous disease challenges.